Certain embodiments of the present invention relate to workflow in a diagnostic medical environment. More particularly, certain embodiments relate to enhancing the workflow in a diagnostic medical environment that uses computer-aided-detection (or diagnosis) (CAD) capability.
A typical diagnostic medical environment, such as a radiology department of a hospital, uses several different types of medical systems such as diagnostic medical imaging acquisition systems, and archive/review stations. The various types of medical systems may be standalone pieces or may be integrated together using one or more networks to improve synergy and workflow. For example, a Digital Imaging Communications in Medicine (DICOM)-based network interface may be used to integrate the various systems. DICOM is a network protocol that sits on top of TCP/IP on a network. The protocol includes a header having patient information and image category information. DICOM allows interoperability between the various medical systems and is able to pass both image data and reports between the systems.
DICOM is the standard in the radiology and cardiology imaging industry for the exchange and management of images and image related information between health systems that are developed independently of each other. DICOM is the healthcare standard for imaging data.
There are many different types of diagnostic medical imaging acquisitions systems that may be used in a diagnostic medical environment. Some examples are X-ray systems, magnetic resonance (MR) systems, computed tomography (CT) systems, positron emission tomography (PET) systems, and ultrasound systems.
Archive/review stations are often used to store large amounts of image data from the diagnostic medical imaging and acquisition systems and to display the image data to health care professionals, such as radiologists, in the form of images. An archive/review station typically comprises storage space and a database to manage the storage space. An archive/review station is typically software heavy and is able to query the database to call up and process stored image data.
Sometimes diagnostic medical environments incorporate a computer-aided-detection (or diagnosis) (CAD) system that processes and analyzes the image data before sending the image data to the archive/review station. FIG. 1 is an exemplary illustration of such an environment. Image data is passed over a network from the diagnostic medical imaging acquisition system to the CAD system.
The CAD system processes the image data, looking for physiological abnormalities in the image data such as, for example, cancerous tumors, lesions, broken bones, blood vessel blockage, tissue damage, bleeding, and other diseases. The CAD system produces detection results that may later be integrated with displayed image data to indicate the abnormal areas. A CAD system typically comprises a general image processing computer with specialized detection algorithms and software.
With the CAD system between the diagnostic medical imaging acquisition system and archive/review station as shown in FIG. 1, there may be a significant delay before the image data gets to the archive/review station. This may cause the health care professional to have to wait while the CAD system performs its processing and analysis. Particularly, if a problem arises, such as image data getting stuck in the CAD system due to a network problem, then the wait may be quite long while a service person is called. Poor workflow performance in the diagnostic medical environment results.
A basic need exists to improve the workflow performance in diagnostic medical environments employing computer-aided-detection (or diagnosis) (CAD) capability.